Raised garden beds are becoming increasingly popular. They have several advantages over regular gardening, but there is a little planning and preparing that you have to do before you can get started.
Before you fill it, what should you put at the bottom of a raised garden bed?
There are lots of materials you can put at the bottom of your raised garden bed. The material will depend on what you are keeping out of your garden- weeds or pests.
When lining the bottom of a raised garden bed, it is best to have something rather than nothing.
Why Should You Use a Raised Garden Bed
Are you possibly looking for a little persuasion on the merits of a raised garden bed before you commit your time to establish one?
Better Harvests
Correct, a raised garden bed will give better crops or more flowers.
Because the soil isn’t being walked on in a raised garden bed, it is less apt to compact.
Soil that is having compaction only has a smaller space for the air and water needed for the plants.
Always Provide: When the plants have ample air and water for growth, the plants will grow stronger and healthier.
Improved Accessibility
Elevated garden beds provide accessibility for people of all different physical abilities.
They eliminate the potential need to bend over or sit on the ground, an ideal option for:
- people in wheelchairs
- people who may have a bad back, or bad knees
- people who don’t feel like kneeling in the dirt
Less Weeding
When you plant in a raised garden bed, especially when you line it, the total number of weeds that come up through the raised bed is minimal.
Most of the weeds in a raised garden bed are weeds that grew from seeds, deposited directly on the top of the soil by the wind.
Because the garden bed is elevated, the height of the garden bed will limit many of the airborne seeds from being carried up and onto the soil.
Benefits of Lining Raised Garden Beds
The advantages of installing a barrier in a raised garden bed extend beyond just keeping the weeds from growing out of the soil below, although that is certainly a plus.
Prevents Pests
Creating a barrier with a lining inside of your raised garden box / bed can inhibit gophers, voles, and moles from digging down into your plants.
Lining does create a barrier the burrowing pests cannot reach into the raised bed.
Prevents Toxins
This is particularly critical in areas where construction is underway and near garbage disposal sites.
By lining your raised garden bed with an impermeable material, you can prevent any toxins or chemicals in the soil from leaching into your raised garden bed.
What to Line Them With
With the significance of lining a raised garden bed now established, what should you line them with?
No one material is best.
What is best for your raised garden bed is going to depend on your gardens situation (what you are growing and what you are trying to keep out of your garden).
Wide-mesh Hardware Cloth
Wide-mesh hardware cloth is just as much fabric as chainmail is.
It’s more similar to a tight weave chicken wire, with holes that can vary in width, cylinder or square, but they should range from ¼ inch to 1 inch.
The holes are wide enough for, say, earthworms and roots to come through but keeps out burrowing animals.
Be Aware: Wide-mesh hardware cloth is typically pretty expensive. Also, because it has holes, it doesn’t do a good job of keeping weeds out of a raised bed garden.
Stainless Steel Rat Mesh
This is a much more finer woven steel than hardware cloth.
This material is specifically selected to prevent rats, gophers, and other similar animals from chewing through it.
Landscape Fabric
Landscape fabric is utilized in all types of gardens to inhibit the development of weeds.
Landscape fabric is constructed of tightly woven recycled materials that allow very few weeds to penetrate.
Eventually, the weeds will stop growing under the surface and will begin to decay under the soil.
Plastic
Plastic is not biodegradable, it’s very inexpensive, it would keep weeds from growing, but it isn’t a good material for drainage and for keeping pests out.
If you have concerns about drainage, you can cut holes or drill holes into the plastic to allow for drainage before you place it at the bottom of your raised garden.
Unfortunately: Burrowing pests will chew through plastic and there are no steps you can take to prevent them from chewing through the material.
Newspaper or Cardboard
This is a material to fill your raised garden bed with that is “something is better than nothing.”
Newspaper and cardboard are readily available, and can be a free material.
It is easy to put down several layers in your raised bed and it does help to keep some weeds out.
With a little moisture, newspaper or cardboard will start breaking down over time.
This will create a nice layer of hummus for your soil, as well as add some organic material into your soil as it breaks down.
Replacing the newspaper or cardboard is going to take more time year to year than any other material.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are using free newspapers and cardboard to expensive hardwear cloth there is something for everyone to line their raised garden beds with.
If your main objective is to exclude rats, gophers, and moles from digging in your garden then use a metal liner.
If your main goal is to weed your garden less pick a material that is much finer mesh to prevent weeds from coming up into your raised garden.